Unconscious memories affect language learning

Most children acquire language effortlessly. It appears that they are not even aware of what they are doing. The brain’s unconscious memories of patterns are likely to be partly responsible for some children struggling to learn to talk.

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have problems understanding language and talking. Because specific language impairment often occurs in children that are otherwise developing normally, it is a hidden disability which is not widely recognised or understood. Professor Conti-Ramsden from The University of Manchester points out that: “many people have never heard of Specific Language Impairment when, in fact, it is as common as dyslexia and much more common than autism. That is one of the reasons why we started an internet campaign on SLI”. (For more information see, www.youtube.com/rallicampaign).

Professor Conti-Ramsden along with a team of international researchers from the USA and Australia have systematically pulled together data from eight studies that collectively compared 186 children with SLI to their peers on a “spot when and where something appears” game. Children have to press one of four buttons that matches the location of a visual stimulus that appear on a computer screen. In some conditions the order in which the stimulus appears follows a predetermined sequence whilst in other conditions the pattern is random.

Dr. Morgan from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute adds: “the performance of children with SLI was pretty similar across the predetermined and random conditions. In contrast, their peers responded more and more quickly as the predetermined sequence trials progressed. Their brain had figured out that there was a procedure, a pattern.”

Dr. Lum from Deakin University explains: “although what we are observing involves vision, we think also applies to how children detect patterns from the language they hear. We think children with SLI have difficulties in how automatically and without conscious awareness, they can do this.”

Professor Ullman from Georgetown University concludes: “these findings challenge existing theories that propose only memory for language is impaired in children with SLI and suggest more general memory deficits in procedural learning are likely to be implicated.”